-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 22:05:06 +0200 From: Nicole Cohen-Addad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [neah] Fw: Pentagon Admits Exposing Sailors to Chem/Bio Weapons
----- Original Message ----- From: Sunil Sharma/Dissident Voice <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <Recipient list suppressed> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 4:37 AM Subject: Pentagon Admits Exposing Sailors to Chem/Bio Weapons > [I'm curious to see if this item gets the wider coverage it deserves. It's > typically the case that when the nation's attention is diverted towards a > major crisis, other important stories pop up, usually in the back pages. -- > Sunil] > > A Military Secret No Longer > Classified U.S. Tests 30 Years Ago Exposed Thousands Of Sailors To Chemical > And Biological Weapons > By MARK PAZNIOKAS, And THOMAS D. WILLIAMS > The Hartford Courant; October 19, 2001 > > He kept the secret for 30 years. The former Navy skipper told no one about > the classified tests of Project Shad, how the Marine jets came screaming > out of the night off a remote Pacific atoll, spraying a 100-mile-long > aerosol cloud over his five tugboats. Then Jack Alderson's men started > getting sick. > > "Some of the guys tried to go to the Pentagon or the American Legion and > said, `I did biological warfare testing.' They basically threw them out, > told them they were crazy," said Alderson, many of whose former crew > complain of chronic respiratory problems. "They told them, `We didn't do > things like that.'" > > But now, after seven years of inquiries from veterans, Congress and the > Department of Veterans Affairs, the Pentagon has confirmed that thousands > of sailors were present during a decadelong series of classified tests to > determine the vulnerability of U.S. warships to attack by chemical and > biological warfare. > > In a series of "fact sheets" given to veterans' hospitals and organizations > last month without wider public notice, the Pentagon acknowledged that some > of the tests involved spraying live biological weapons over U.S. ships, > including Alderson's tugs. Pentagon officials say that nerve agents such as > sarin and VX gas also were used, but they refuse to disclose where, when > and how. > > Other tests involved exposure to "simulants," relatively harmless microbes > and chemical markers used as stand-ins for a potentially deadly biological > agent that resonates so powerfully today: anthrax. In all, more than a > dozen ships were used, in both the Pacific and Atlantic, from 1960 to 1970. > Involvement was brief for some ships and crews. For others, it was a > full-time assignment lasting years. > > In the tests, Marine attack bombers sprayed either simulants or live > biological agents. Then the ships sailed through the resulting cloud and > collected air samples. In some tests, caged monkeys were placed on deck and > later tested to determine whether they had inhaled the material. > > In the "hot tests," involving live biological warfare agents, the sailors > took shelter in compartments rigged with positive-pressure ventilation > designed to prevent the test material from infiltrating the ships. Other > precautions included inoculations for rabbit fever and Q fever, two of the > illnesses caused by the biological weapons employed, Pasteurella tularensis > and Coxiella burnetti. > > "The crews who participated ... were not test subjects, but test > conductors," according to the fact sheets. > > The Pentagon says no health problems have been linked to the tests, but the > veterans say no one has ever looked. A dozen test veterans reached by The > Courant in recent weeks, including a former medical services officer, say > they never were examined for exposure to the test material in the 1960s or > monitored in later years. > > "I've had some concerns, respiratory problems like the others," said Norman > LaChapelle, the former medical officer. "You go to the VA, a good physician > will ask you, `What were you exposed to? What was your work?' Most of us > until now couldn't say." > > One former tug skipper has cancer of the esophagus. Another officer died > after developing fibrous growths in his lungs. Dozens of others have > varying degrees of respiratory problems, Alderson and others said. One old > skipper, who did not want to be quoted by name, said that he collapsed and > was critically ill for 18 days shortly after his Pacific service. > > Ironically, the veterans say they are more concerned about the risks posed > by the powerful cleansing agents used to decontaminate their ships than > they are about the biological warfare agents. Some of the cleansing agents > are now suspected of causing cancer. > > The recently released fact sheets detail only three series of tests, > conducted in 1963 and 1965 under the code names "Autumn Gold," "Shady > Grove" and "Copper Head." They are only a fraction of the tests conducted > as part of Shad, an acronym for "shipboard hazard and defense." > > The three fact sheets are three pages each. They represent nearly a year's > work searching archives and synthesizing records by a team led by Dee > Dodson Morris, a chemical weapons expert who holds a position meant to > underscore the Pentagon's new openness about chemical and biological > warfare. Her title is "director of lessons learned." > > The post was created after Persian Gulf War veterans spent a frustrating > decade seeking information about chemical and biological weapons released > by the destruction of Iraqi munitions. The experience has left many > doubting the Pentagon's ability or willingness to fully investigate Project > Shad. > > Morris' fact sheets describe how the tests were supposed to be carried out. > Since her team interviewed no veterans, even though Alderson and others > offered to share their recollections, they do not claim to be a historical > record of what actually happened. > > "The fact that the military is investigating, it doesn't breed confidence. > The military tends to downplay its involvement with radiation, with > biological warfare and chemical warfare," said U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, > R-4th District. "The military does not have a very good record when it > comes to examining itself. Its past record of candid review, it's just not > there." > > Secrets And Seasickness > > LaChapelle helped oversee Project Shad from the "mother ship," USS > Granville S. Hall. It was a converted Liberty ship with a mysterious past: > In the 1950s, rigged with remote-control steering, it was sent into the > atomic fallout from nuclear tests. > > Years later, the Hall's crew members joked about setting off the radiation > alarms every time they sailed into Pearl Harbor. > > "Every time we pulled into Pearl, it was as if we were a spook. We were > looked on as if we were orphans in the view of the `real Navy' or combat > Navy," LaChapelle said. > > To test simulants, the Hall and the accompanying fleet of tugs sailed only > 60 miles off the island of Oahu. For the hot tests, they traveled 800 miles > to Johnston Island, a remote atoll controlled by the Army's chemical > warfare program. It was a rough trip for the tugs. Designed for sheltered > waters, they pitched and rolled, as much as a stomach-churning 60 degrees. > > "You had to be there to see it. Those tugs were just corks. There was no > way to get a good night's sleep on those things," LaChapelle said. > > Even the rhesus monkeys got seasick. > > "And a seasick monkey is a pissed-off monkey," Alderson said. The 8-pound > creatures frequently escaped, climbing the radio mast. They practiced their > own form of biological warfare, defecating and urinating on the sailors > assigned to recapture them. > > The tests almost always were done at night, when the air was calm. An A-4B > Skyhawk would take off from Johnston, afterburner roaring. Sometimes, the > sailors could see the cloud falling from the sky, settling over the decks > of the tugs. > > When instruments showed that the cloud had dissipated, a crewman in a > protective suit would decontaminate, washing down the ship with seawater > and cleansers. The monkeys were sent to the Hall to be killed and autopsied > - and the results of those tests are still secret. > > Secrecy was paramount, especially when the crews returned to Pearl. J.B. > Stone, a radioman assigned to the Hall in 1967 and 1968, said, "Guys who > got drunk and blathered in a bar in Honolulu would disappear," reassigned > to less-sensitive work. > > The only tests known to take place in the Atlantic, "Copper Head," involved > only simulated biological agents, according to the fact sheets. The Navy > provided a destroyer, the USS Power. Its crew was told nothing - only that > it was to steam from Florida to Newfoundland in January, one of its more > unpopular deployments. > > "They wanted cold-weather testing. They got it. The winds were horrible," > said Larry Ginter of Fort Scott, Kan., then a petty officer. He remembers a > special crew that came aboard. "They told me they were testing air currents > and the air tightness of the ship." > > Homer Tack Jr., a torpedo man from Butler, Pa., recalls conducting perhaps > four tests in January and February of 1965. > > "We'd go to sea. The jets would fly overhead and spray. We'd get wet. We > all asked what went on. They said nothing," Tack said. He added, "I told my > family for 30 years that someday this was going to hit the news." > > A Belated Disclosure > > Alderson started asking the Pentagon in 1994 to open its files and provide > Veterans Affairs with enough data to evaluate what he and others believe is > a rash of chronic respiratory illness among veterans of Project Shad. He > was no crank. At the time, he was the chief executive officer of the marine > district that manages the port of Humboldt Bay, Calif. Even with the help > of a congressman, he got nowhere. > > A book published in 1999, "The Biology of Doom," described some of Project > Shad. Then CBS News aired two stories about the secret tests in early 2000. > Officials say that was the impetus for the disclosures about "Shady Grove," > "Autumn Gold" and "Copper Head." > > Pat Eddington of the Vietnam Veterans of America said that his organization > was "appalled" the experiments were ever conducted and that it took 40 > years for the Pentagon to acknowledge them. > > But Alderson and some of the other veterans, while frustrated at the > military's slow response to their requests for information, said they are > proud of their service and defend the necessity of the testing. > > "It was a highly motivated crew," said LaChapelle, now the administrator of > public health for Memphis and Shelby County, Tenn. "We still feel like > that. We were doing an important job for the Navy and the Department of > Defense." > > He said he does not need to be reminded that biowar research was a > real-world concern during the Cold War - or now. Today, as a public health > administrator, he is in charge of investigating reports of anthrax terrorism. > > ========================================================= > Dissident Voice is a semi-regular newsletter dedicated to challenging the > lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves. > > "To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair > inevitable." -- Raymond Williams > > Editor: Sunil K. Sharma > > DV welcomes your feedback/free use of your country vacation home/fine > ales/excess wealth. > > Dissident Voice > Santa Rosa, CA USA > (707) 545-6458 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.dissidentvoice.org > > ------------------------ Yahoo! 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